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New to Linux - Questions

I have been working with windows for years now. I'm shifting to Linux so I am very new to it. There are a couple of questions I want to ask and hopefully you guys can help.

Q. Is NIS/RADIUS/LDAP/KERBEROS similar to Windows Active Directory?

Q. Among NIS, RADIUS, LDAP and KERBEROS which one is widely used, easy to configure, recommended?

Q. Does linux have group policy like in windows in controlling desktop accesss for users/groups?

Q. I've worked in a windows environment with multi domain, can nis handle that? In windows client machine it has a logon to dropdown box were you can choose the domain you want to login. Does linux have this?

Q. In windows when there are new users we give them default passwords and then they are asked by windows to
change it on their first login. Can linux do this. This feature is really important.

Q. Am I correct that NFS is used to share file/folders on a server? Is this just like windows file server?

Q. Can linux server also be used as printer server where printers are shared and then client machines would just connect to it in order to print just like in windows?

Q. Can root account be used as a network login?

Hope fully you could also guide me to a good tutorial for newbies on the questions I just asked.

1) NIS and LDAP are related same as windows active directory.
2) LDAP is used widely.
3) NIS is older method, but yes it is also used in smany environments
4) All your request can be handled through configuration files, In windows you might have used GUI.
5) Yes, you can control user and group policies much better than windows in LINUX.
6) Password aging be handled through "chage" command.
7) You can creted users with default password, by writing you own script.
8) NFS is used to for file sharing
9) CUPS is the service used for printer server
10) Linuxhomenetworking.com has lots of tutorial, which can guide you